Catch As Catch Can
by Sir Gwydion
Summary: Would-Be-Plots, Story One. First in a sequence of bits of plot from the original idea I had for Bloodhound on the Scent, but that didn't fit with the final version of the outline, turned into short stories. Starring, of course, Beka and Rosto.


**Here is a vaguely random short story from a course I chose against going with for my story _Bloodhound on the Scent._ I know you're supposed to leave dead plots in peace, but it wouldn't get out of my head. It's significantly altered from the way it would have been so that it makes sense on it's own.  
**

**Hope you enjoy reading!**

**Sir Gwydion**

* * *

_Introduction_

_Beka is still a Puppy, but she's considered a Dog by (almost) everyone . When something needs taking care of, she's the one who gets sent, and that's just what's going on right now._

_ Many Dogs grumble that Tunstall and Goodwin have all the luck, with their puppy whose never lost a chase to do all the fetching for them. So many pairs have taken to 'borrowing' Beka, giving one excuse or another. _

_Tunstall and Goodwin aren't precisely happy about this, but there's nothing they can do, since Ahuda finally ordered Goodwin to stop breaking Dog's fingers just for trying to get her Puppy to do their job._

_Finally, things have escalated so much that Ahuda put her foot down. Beka starts the watch with her Dogs, but after mid-watch any pair that's going in for trouble can claim her._

_As you might guess, Beka is not really that happy with the whole arrangement. The Mantel and Pullet does a booming business for Dogs lingering hopefully around Tunstall and Goodwin, hoping to snap Beka up before another pair does. The whole thing is ridiculous. Instead of having a pair of Dogs, she now belongs to the whole dratted Kennel! Any passing Dog feels he has a claim on her, and this results in various, unexpected trips. . ._

* * *

**Catch As Catch Can**

"Cooper!" the Dog shouted (things have gotten so bad now that I don't even have time to recognize who it is giving the order) "Fetch!"

With I sigh, I scanned the area. There she was, a Rat on the run. I took off after her as fast as I could.

"There goes her dinner," Goodwin muttered afore I was out of earshot. It was true; we'd been not ten paces from the Mantel and Pullet and some good, hot stew when the call came. And this Rat was a fast one, too, darting in and out of the Nightmarket crowds. But, like every other Rat, she seemed certain that she could out run the Dogs. Truth to tell, it's harder to catch them when they just blend into the milling people and lie low. Fast, but not tricky like some.

After a moment's thought, I sighed. No, I would not be getting any dinner tonight. If she could keep up the pace, we'd be wearing down the cobbles for a good long while yet, and then I'd have to get her back to the Kennel -- never a pleasant task. Idly I wondered what she'd done to get the Cages. Most denizens of the Nightmarket just got a stern word and a rap on the knuckles.

I dodged a cave with a heavy-laden donkey behind him. The Rat dropped something, and it rang on the cobblestones, making me glance down involuntarily. And then I knew why this mot was headed for the Cages. The small round gray lump looked innocent enough, but I knew differently. We'd been having quite the to-do about these in the Kennel.

Mage-darts, they were called, though they acted more like blaze-balm. One word and they would burst out into flames. That was what made them so dangerous: it didn't have to be a mage who spoke. And the activating word could be anything. It was easy enough to slip on into someone's pocket and the next time that word was said in conversation--

It was a sarden cruel way to die.

Not everyone died, but no one came out unscathed.

I snatched the mage-dart off the road and jammed it into my pocket. _Dear Goddess, don't let her say the activation word! _I prayed. But I couldn't just leave it in the street.

Was she a purchaser or a manufacturer? Most like, she'd been buying them. A mage would have thrown a fireball and me, or sommat, like Kora does when you make her jump.

She glanced back at me, and I saw that she had pale, colorless eyes, dark hair, a thin, sharp beak of a nose. And she was afraid. She knew I was gaining.

A clatter in and alley caught my notice. Someone shouted "There she is!" And someone came catapulting out of the alley, racing beside me after the Rat. I glanced to the side, thoroughly confused. Who else would be after my Rat?

It was Rosto! His white-blond hair fluttering, his night-black eyes as surprised as my own.

" Why --" we both gasped at the same time, then turned back to keep our glims on that slippery Rat.

After a few moments of silence, I said, "I thought you never got to do leg work any more?"

Grim lines appeared around his mouth and eyes. "I wanted to take care of this myself."

"Mage-darts in the Court of the Rogue? " I guessed.

He nodded; I barely caught the movement from the corner of my eye.

Suddenly I realized there was a conflict in the making here. "I'm taking her to the Cages." I told him sternly in my brooks-no-argument-older-sister voice.

"I'm taking her to the Dancing Dove for questioning." he told me severely, in his Rogue voice." I want to know who's giving her her orders."

"I'm faster."

"I'm stronger"

"I'll blow my whistle for the nearest Dogs."

"I don't even have to _look _for a Rat too help me."

Putting on a burst of speed, I pulled farther ahead of him, barely two yards behind the Rat, three ahead of Rosto. I smiled to myself. He might be like lightning in a fight, but I'm the fastest Dog in the Lower City, maybe all of Corus. I grabbed the mot's wrist from behind and pulled her to the ground, stamping on her ankle so she wouldn't try anything. The mot cursed me fluently and with a wide vocabulary.

"In the King's name!" I said, pulling out my hobbles and tying first her hands, with an extra loop around the thumb, and then her feet. True, she'd need to walk for us to get back to the Kennel, but I didn't want her wandering off while I sorted things out with Rosto.

He waited patiently for me to finish. When I looked up, his eyes were cold. "Rogue's justice." he told me in a flat voice.

"King's justice."

"You know I'll only have some of my people raid the Cages."

"Then why are you making such a fuss when you'll be getting her soon enough anyway?"

He sighed impatiently, a short, sharp sound. "I don't want to fight you, Cooper."

"Nor I you. But I'm going to do my job." I put my hand on my baton. As he drew his knife, I added, "And I don't want to end up having to move because the owner or my inn's struck a Dog with a blade and got away with it, as you know you would. So if you don't use any of your knives, I won't use mine, or my baton. "

He made no move to sheath his knife.

Without any real force behind it, I swung my baton at his head. His block was equally unenthusiastic. We both made faces.

After a few more half-hearted attempts, Rosto disengaged and said, "How's this. You take her to the Cages, but don't warn the Cage Dogs that anything will be happening tonight, and also tell _me _where precisely she's locked up, so my men don't have to wander about in there any more then need be."

I considered a moment. "And you return her to the Dogs when your done questioning her."

He rolled his eyes but nodded.

I put my baton away, and checked the mot for any more mage-darts. Stashed in various pockets, there were ten in all, counting the one she'd dropped. With a care, gagged her, then tied the little gray lumps in my handkerchief, offering up another fervent prayer to the Goddess.

First untying the hobbles I'd put on her feet, I pulled the Rat to her feet, she wouldn't stand. I glared at her, making my eyes like ice in the firelight coming from a window nearby. Folk say they're like a ghost's when I'm angry, and that I was. "If I have to drag you," I hissed at her, "It'll be much less fun for you then it will be for me. "

The mot stood.

"You really are a different person when you're on your Watch," Rosto observed, making me jump. I thought he'd left. " Usually if you said sommat like that, you be blushing as red as a ripe apple -- or as green as one."

Thank the gods it was dark; I_ was _blushing now. He grinned at me, turned on his heel and was gone.

"Move." I told the mot, keeping ahold of the hobbles. She didn't make a fuss.

By the time I got her to the Kennel, the Watch had changed. The Night Watch commander jerked his thumb toward the Cages. This wasn't a rare event.

"Wa's she in for? " asked the supremely bored Cage Dog.

I told him.

"Figures. You got 'em all?"

I handed him the handkerchief full of mage-darts..

"Well then, here're yer 'obbles. " Deftly, he untied them from the Rat's wrists and threw them to me, at the same time shoving the mot toward a forward cell. She growled through the gag.

Back home at the Dancing Dove, I begged some food from the cook, Gafell, then went out into the common room. Not for the first time, I wondered whether these curst rogues ever slept at all. For a certain, I'd never seen the Dove empty. But even they disappear off to some nook to sleep. All save them as passed out drunk, who Gafell lays, neat as you please, against the wall till they sober themselves.

Rosto wasn't on his throne tonight -- he most times only did that when he was standing on ceremony. I slid onto the bench next to him and made good on our deal.

"I thought you Puppies were supposed to stay with your Dogs." He said.

"That's the problem. Every pair thinks their my Dogs -- or rather that I'm their Puppy."

"You know, it's not always the Dogs who set you after a Rat. "

I blinked.

"The members of my most honorable Court seem to find it rather amusing to wait till they see another Rat -- usually one who's got on their wrong side, and yell 'Cooper, fetch!' as loud as they can. And off you go like a whistle."

My face iced over. I could feel it creeping down my spine.

"They never try it around Tunstall and Goodwin of course. They'd get caught for sure if they did. "

I stood up to leave, afore I could do sommat rash.

"And Beka?"

I turned to face him.

"I'm pulling your leg."

The ice seemed to shatter and I let out an inarticulate howl of rage. Prudently, he pulled out arms reach and raced for the street door, laughing so hard he trembled. A thump sounded upstairs and I realized we must have woken Kora of Aniki, or both, but I didn't care.

"Rat!" I shouted, and gave chase.

"That's King Rat to you, Cur!" he called back, ducking into an alley.

He wasn't so slow that he couldn't keep ahead, and he was too clever to be cornered. Finally, as if by accord, we collapsed on the banks of the Olorun, panting. Suddenly the funny side of the situation struck me, and I couldn't stop laughing. Beside me, Rosto too was laughing fit to burst.

Eventually, we subsided into chuckles, then silence.

"I would say sorry, " Rosto told me, "But I'm not."

I put on as stern a face as I could, then realized he wouldn't be able to see in the dark anyway, as the moon was only a slim crescent, and gave up. "And you expect me to forgive you regardless?"

For answer, he leaned over and kissed me.

"Now you expect me to forgive you just because you kissed me?"

"No," he said. " I expect you to forgive me because you're Beka."

I couldn't fault his logic there (after all, I'd forgiven him after only a few minute's chase). I turned and pressed my smiling lips to his.


End file.
